Protect Your Landscape Lighting Through Ohio Winter

The first hard freeze in Central Ohio usually lands somewhere between the second week of November and the first week of December, and that’s when I get calls from clients whose path lights stopped working or whose uplights pulled out of the ground during a snowblower pass. I’ve spent more than ten years working on properties across Pickaway, Franklin, and Fairfield counties, and landscape lighting is one of the things people invest serious money in, then completely forget to think about between fall cleanup and spring.

Lawn Harmony Landscaping handles the maintenance side of low-voltage systems we’ve installed and the protection work for systems other crews installed before us. This is what I do before the snow flies, and what I’d want any homeowner to do whether we’re servicing the property or not.

What’s the most important step to protect landscape lighting in winter?

Mark every fixture’s location with a flag or stake before the first snow, lower the most exposed fixtures into protective positions where you can, and shut off any features that can be damaged by freezing. Three things, in that order. Marking is what saves fixtures from snowblower and shovel damage. Lowering is what saves them from heavy snow loads. Shutting off the right circuits is what saves transformers and wiring from cold-related failures.

On a Grove City property I serviced last November, the homeowner had a beautifully installed path lighting run along the front walk, and we’d talked through marking the locations in October. He didn’t get to it. The first significant snowfall came overnight, his teenage son cleared the walk the next morning, and three of the eight path lights were sheared off at the stem. The fixtures themselves cost about $90 each, and the labor to dig in, splice, and re-seat them ran another couple of hours. All preventable with $5 worth of orange marker flags from the hardware store.

How do I mark fixtures so the snow crew doesn’t hit them?

Use tall, brightly colored marker flags or driveway stakes, the kind with a reflective top. Fiberglass marker rods are even better because they bend instead of snapping when bumped. Place one flag immediately behind each fixture as seen from the direction the snowblower or plow will approach.

For path lighting, I run the flag line two to three inches behind the fixture, not directly behind it, so the snow crew can see both the flag and the fixture and visually verify the offset. For uplights at the base of trees or shrubs, place a flag at the edge of the mulch ring on each side of the fixture. For step lights and recessed wall lights, you usually don’t need flags because they’re protected by structure, but check that no snow shovel path will scrape directly across them.

On a Bexley property with about forty feet of path lighting, I use eight to ten flags. That’s overkill in good visibility, but in a December snowstorm at six in the morning when the snow crew is on their tenth driveway of the day, more flags is always better than fewer.

Should I remove or lower fixtures for the winter?

For most permanent landscape lighting in Central Ohio, you leave the fixtures in place and protect them rather than removing them. Removing and reinstalling each season is expensive labor and creates wear on connections.

There are exceptions. Light fixtures sitting in flower beds that are likely to get more than 8 inches of snow piled on them benefit from being pulled and stored. The same goes for any fixture that sits in a path where it’ll get walked on or shoveled directly across. Floating pond lights need to come out before the surface freezes, period. And specialty fixtures like rotating spots or motion-activated heads with exposed gear assemblies should be checked against the manufacturer’s cold-weather rating.

For the standard cast brass or aluminum path light, leave it. For a cheap plastic spike light from a big-box store, it’s worth pulling out and storing in a garage shelf because the plastic will fail in a few seasons of freeze-thaw anyway.

What about the transformer?

The transformer is the heart of any low-voltage landscape lighting system, and it’s usually wall-mounted on the exterior of the house, sometimes inside a garage. Quality transformers are weather-rated and built to operate outdoors year-round, but they still benefit from a few minutes of attention before winter sets in.

First, check that the cover is sealed and the venting is clear of leaves and debris. A leaf pile pushed up against a transformer in November becomes a wet, frozen mess by January that blocks ventilation and traps moisture.

Second, verify the timer or photocell is set correctly for the season. Days are shorter, so your run time should be shorter too if you want to save lamp life. I usually shift my own system from a 6-hour run to a 4-hour run between Thanksgiving and the spring equinox.

Third, listen to it. A healthy transformer is nearly silent. A loud hum, a buzz, or any kind of clicking is worth a service call. Per OSU Extension energy guidance and any low-voltage manufacturer documentation, a transformer making unusual noise is often pulling more current than it should, which means a short or a failing lamp is dragging the system.

How do I check for damage from last winter before the snow returns?

This is the work I do in late October and early November on every client’s landscape lighting system. It catches problems before snow makes them invisible.

Walk the entire system at dusk on a clear evening and look at each fixture. Note any that are dim, flickering, or dark. Dim fixtures usually mean a voltage drop somewhere on the run, often from corrosion at a wire connection. Flickering is almost always a failing lamp. Dark fixtures could be a lamp, a connection, or a cut wire from last year’s lawn work.

Replace any lamps that are dim or flickering before they fail completely in January, because nobody wants to dig a snow-packed fixture out to swap a bulb. LED replacement lamps for most fixtures are inexpensive and last for years.

Check wire runs that surface anywhere they shouldn’t. Buried low-voltage wire that pops out at the edge of a bed is a sign something pulled it up. Rodents, frost heave, and aggressive lawn aeration are the usual culprits. Re-bury exposed wire 6 inches deep before the ground freezes, because once it freezes you’re stuck until spring.

On a Lancaster property last November, I found two wire splices that had been buried with electrical tape only, no waterproof connector. Both had corroded over the course of the year and were dropping voltage on the back half of the run. Fifteen minutes with waterproof gel-filled connectors and the system was back to full brightness.

What’s the right snow-removal protocol around fixtures?

If you handle your own snow removal, the rules are simple. Don’t pile snow on fixtures. Don’t throw shovel scoops directly across them. Don’t run the snowblower auger over them. None of that is hard if the fixtures are flagged, which is the whole point of flagging in October.

If you hire a snow crew, the conversation to have in November, before the first snow, is to walk the property with whoever’s running the route and physically point at every fixture. Email or text won’t cut it. People who clear snow at 4 a.m. are looking at edges and obstacles. They need to know what’s there.

I’ve watched a snow contractor in Pickerington pile 30 inches of snow on a row of path lights in a single push because nobody told him they were there. By April, three fixtures were cracked and one had a bent stem. The homeowner blamed the snow crew, but the snow crew did exactly what they always do. The miss was on whoever managed the property and didn’t communicate.

Should I winterize wire connections specifically?

Most modern low-voltage landscape lighting systems use waterproof gel-filled connectors at every splice, and those don’t need any winter prep. If your system was installed before about 2010 or by a less professional crew, you may have wire-nut connections that weren’t waterproofed. Those need attention before winter.

The fix is straightforward. Dig down to the connection, snip out the old wire nut, strip back to fresh copper, and use a gel-filled waterproof connector to remake the splice. Re-bury at proper depth. This is bread-and-butter low-voltage work and most lighting service providers do it without making a big deal of it.

Common winter damage I see on Central Ohio landscape lighting

• Sheared-off path light stems from snow crew or shovel impact
• Bent fixture housings from snow load on top of cheap plastic
• Pulled-up wire runs at the edge of beds, often from rodent activity
• Corroded splices that worked all summer but failed under freeze-thaw
• Transformers buried under leaf piles that blocked ventilation
• Pond lights left in the water that froze and cracked

Quick pre-winter landscape lighting checklist

• All fixtures flagged with bright marker stakes
• Each lamp checked for dim or flickering operation and replaced as needed
• Transformer cover sealed, vents clear, timer set to winter run time
• Any exposed wire re-buried at least 6 inches deep
• Pond and water-feature lighting removed and stored
• Snow crew walked through the property and shown fixture locations
• Old wire-nut splices upgraded to waterproof gel-filled connectors

Want help with your landscape lighting and winter property prep?

Lawn Harmony Landscaping handles low-voltage landscape lighting maintenance as part of our full landscape service, along with fall cleanup, shrub protection, and pre-winter property walks across Central Ohio. We’re owner-operated, locally based in Circleville, with a 5.0-star Google rating.

For a free written quote, call 614-425-9789 or email Lawnharmonyohio@gmail.com. You can get a fast residential estimate at quick-mow-quote.emergent.host. Commercial properties can request a walkthrough at /quote/commercial.

For more on this week’s property-protection topics, read our companion pieces on installing Christmas lights without damaging your home and outdoor electrical safety for Ohio winter decor.

Service area: Circleville, Columbus, Grove City, Bexley, Upper Arlington, Pickerington, Canal Winchester, Groveport, Lancaster, Baltimore, Chillicothe, Washington Court House, and Jeffersonville.